The Witching Hour

"Which witch is which? Find out in this most fiendish of ranking events! ★Reap the rewards as you climb more floors★"

- In-game description

The Witching Hour is a Ranked "battle tower" event available in March 2019. It features a face-off with Meia, in some of her newer job classes.

In layout, this is the standard progressive tower event in the Tower of Trials, similar to the I vs. I competition in January. The main restriction here is that you must use either Meia jobs or Ultimate Heroes to fight.

Event Details

 * Ranking Event duration: March 22 - April 1, 2019
 * Event type: progressive Tower Battle

How to Participate

 * Select "The Witching Hour" from the Act 2 world map -- its own red spot.
 * This event is only accessible after a player clears the Runic Temple in Chapter 1

Story
Meia is stepping through the Tower of Trials, bored, when she is confronted by... Meia?? It seems the Tower, or Palamecia has decided to have her confront herself. Much like Wol's own experience, the Tower has a cluster of Meia's aspects her to challenge her. One steps forward.

At first, the two just bandy words between them, talking about the thanks they have to Wol for helping her -- them? -- to become stronger. But is that all there is? Each Meia demands answers about the other's true feelings but neither is willing to give anything. They both quickly get annoyed with the wordplay and evasive answers of the other, and they agree that the best thing is for the superior one to force the answers from the other. The fight is on.

Gameplay
Players in this area must use a Meia job in both the primary and secondary decks to be allowed to play. But there is a loophole - if you use an Ultimate Hero job card, you can set any job you like to it, Meia or not. The first selection screen will only show you the job sets that meet these requirements, or you'll get a denial message if you have none. Go set up your jobs!

Play in this area works up a single chain of levels, from the beginning Abyss level up to the top Ragnarok level. As you work your way up the tower, the battles at each level will get progressively harder.

Each area has three battles:
 * 1) The first one is against fodder fiends (Dusts, Grudges, Dryads).
 * 2) The second one is against a Sicarius.
 * 3) The third features a confrontation with Meia in one of her recent Job outfits, decked with recent Ability Cards. These can include Supreme Cards like Yiazmat: FFXII (Cyclone), and the power ramps up fairly quickly. Add to this the new battle system, which gives the enemy an attack after only 1-2 actions of your own, and the danger is not to be underestimated.

Meia will have a set of orb icons on her status, indicating how many elemental orbs she has. As she attacks, these will fill up, and she will use them to cast abilities at you. Hitting her with opposite element attacks will reduce the number of orbs he has.

The end of his status bar also shows her Ultimate Gauge. When this fills to 100, she'll hit you with the same Ultimate Ability you'd expect for that Job. You can delay this by hitting her with non-elemental attacks while she's Broken, and during your own Mobius Zone periods.

Finally, every few turns Meia will switch from an Attacker role to a Breaker role, and a few turns later, back again. When she does, her elemental affinity will shift, and she will switch to a different set of Abilitites. (just like your own Job Change Shift)

Event Map
"Hidden thoughts, buried desires, and forgotten lies are but part of Meia's past that she wishes she could forget. Yet the time has come for her to face herself and step into the darkness -- a chilly embrace all too familiar to the one who would call herself the Azure Witch."

- World Map description

The region is the standard Tower of Trials -- one path with a staircase up, and a platform every 2 levels, leading up to the top at the 50th "Ragnarok" level. You cannot return to previous levels once they've been beaten.

After completing the Highest Level: Ragnarok, you enter the "Phantasmic Coil" areas. This is a set of 5 areas that repeat in an infinite loop, also with an increasing difficulty with each area finished. On these levels, there is no fifth Rental Card allowed, and if you lose, you cannot use s to continue. A Prize of x5 is handed out for each loop of 5 completed.

There are 31 areas, including the Phantasmic Coil and the Starting Area. There are 26 treasure chests. Since the treasure chest in the Phantasmic Coil regenerates on each pass, the region technically cannot be Cleared.

Areas
The "ladder" consist of 20 levels, but only 25 actual areas. As you progress, the previous areas become inaccessible -- you can only go up.

Phantasmic Coil
The five levels after Ragnarok are set in an infinite loop, with a prize on the completion of the fifth area on each loop. Players cannot use s to continue the battle if they lose, and the fifth "rental" card is not available.

The skrimishes here have a pre-set collection of fiends, but after the 65th kill they will change to other fiends. The third skirmish always remains as described.

Ranking Rewards
The game awards The Azure Witch job card to you at the beginning of the contest, maxed out, if you have not already obtained it from Act 1, Chapter 6! This guarantees that all players can participate, regardless of experience or Job collection.

Anyone who completes all of the normal levels should make it within the top 30,000 players, though it may still require a run or two through the Phantasmic Coil to breach the top 10,000.

The top 2,000 players will get s as a reward. These are used to open special high-end rewards in the Rift.

Notable Enemies

 * Anima (Sicarius)
 * Ultima (Sicarius)
 * Odin (Sicarius)
 * Hashmal (Sicarius)
 * Ifrit (Sicarius)
 * Shiva (Sicarius)

Meia's aspects

 * Primeval Witch
 * Glam Vamp
 * Vesna Krasna
 * Nightwalker
 * Mellow Mermaid

Reference

 * Mobius Final Fantasy News Page Announcement
 * Witching Hour superthread on Reddit
 * Dexcloud's list of Meia's actions on Reddit
 * BuffMaister's compilation of the videos from the event